Polymers are versatile as construction material due to the relative ease with which they can be formed into either simple or complex shapes. Products traditionally manufactured from glass, wood, ceramic or metal are increasingly being manufactured from polymer materials.
An important factor in selecting a polymer as a substitute material for making an existing product, or as a material for making a new product, is to ensure that the polymer has the requisite chemical and/or physical properties to enable the product to adequately perform its intended function. To a large extent, the chemical and/or physical properties of a polymer are to be determined by its molecular structure. Such properties can, however, also be influenced by the presence of reinforcing additives, such as solid particulate material dispersed throughout the polymer matrix to form a composite structure.
A polymer composite can often exhibit enhanced chemical and/or physical properties compared with those exhibited by the host polymer (that is, in the absence of the solid particulate material). For this reason, polymer composites are used extensively to manufacture products across a diverse array of industries, including the aeronautical, automotive and biomedical industries.
A rapidly developing field of polymer composite technology is that of polymer nanocomposites. Polymer nanocomposites are typically prepared by dispersing spheres, clusters, layers, tubes, rods or networks or nanometre sized (10−9 to <10−6 m) solid particulate material throughout a host polymer matrix. In order to have the solid particulate material disperse to a sufficient degree, it has been found in the art that the solid particulate material often needs to be organically modified to result in better interaction between the host polymer and the solid particulate material. Interaction as used herein refers to chemical bonding or physical association of the host polymer with the solid particulate material, preferably by way of the organic modifier. Such nanocomposites having better interaction then exhibit further enhanced chemical and/or physical properties compared with a corresponding polymer composite having dispersed micrometer sized solid particulate material or presumably unmodified nanometer sized solid particulate material (should they be able to be dispersed sufficiently), and of course can have enhanced chemical and/or physical properties compared with those exhibited by the host polymer absent the solid particulate material.
One method commonly known in the art of increasing the interaction between the host polymer and the solid particulate material is to apply an organic modifier to a surface of the solid particulate material. That is, the interaction then occurs between the organic modifier of the solid particulate material and the host polymer. The literature predominantly teaches the use of a single organic modifier. The literature that does reference the use of more than one organic modifier does not comprehensively teach how the interaction of the host polymer and the solid particulate material may be enhanced.